


Jinx Evolution

by orphan_account



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 13:28:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15195767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It took a small while before Jinx could accept her new place in the world.





	1. Chapter 1

She wasn’t going to become a saint in a day. There wasn’t that magical moment where she dove headfirst into changing all her ways, okay? She was just  _Jinx_. She knew what she was  _supposed_  to do, obviously. You say  _Good Morning_  to everyone on the street, and never cheat, and never lie, and ask for forgiveness for all your sins, and volunteer at senior centers, yeah, okay. But she couldn’t live a life where she religiously stuck to living every single part of her life “heroically”. It just wasn’t going to happen. She hadn’t grown up like that. If it was going to be genuine, it was going to have to take time.

So… Jinx decided to… give herself a, like, sort of test. For herself. Kind of.    

She was going to explore. Experiment. See how being a hero felt, how it felt to take punches to the gut and blows to the face for the people of this city.    

She’d been lounging around her fairly nice hotel room for the past two days now, debating, dabbling. Jinx would have to put on a persona. That’s for sure. No more stealing for food, or money, being sponsored by other villainry products, getting odd jobs to hex or do dirty work. Jinx was going to have to get a job, now. And jobs meant secret identities.  Jenny Baxter. She'd… she’d probably have to- oh, god- call Cyborg for a favor, maybe, if she got into hero acts, to ask for one of those appearance concealment devices he used to become “Stone”. No- if all goes wrong with the Teen Titans, she just might have to steal one from Gizmo. They always slept like rocks through the weekend mornings, except for See-More, who always left to get breakfast on Sundays… 

Anyways. Complications. She’ll go through them later. Right now, she had to play at being hero. 

She left the hotel room, remembering for the thousandth time Kid Flash and his offer- the one where he told her that she could always go with him if she needed a place to stay.      

_Stupid, stupid._

Her heart- irrationally- started beating faster. Jinx’d refused. If she’d taken the offer, this whole transition into being a hero would’ve been for  _him_ , which would’ve been  _wrong_. You can’t be that dependent on someone. You just can’t. You have yourself, and no matter what people say, things can change, and then they change, and when the world around you is falling to ruins, yourself is all you’re going to have. She needed this independence, at least for a little bit. And she needed this experiment. And hey- look! She wasn’t even doing too shabby! She was paying for (and not stealing) food, her hotel room, new clothes for “Jenny Baxter"… Okay, she was paying with stolen money, yes. But that was only until she- er, Jenny- got a job…. 

The job question consumed her mind, and she left thoughts of Kid Flash behind. He would come back into her brain somehow, and soon. He had that infuriating habit of popping up like that.  

****    

She waited. Jinx wasn’t really sure if this was how heroes these days did their work, and she was actually pretty uncomfortable about it, but she waited.  

And waited.     

And waited.

 In her mind, she went over the rules of this situation. They went like this: 

  * if the crime was being done by the Hive Five, it was a no- go. She was getting the hell out of there. She didn’t care if heroes faced their fears, and didn’t back down- technically, she wasn’t a hero yet. And this little experiment would not work if she was facing her old friends- feelings would get warped, the results wouldn’t be right, etc.
  * if someone else is already fighting them, ESPECIALLY if it’s the Teen Titans, you can go ahead and back off. Don’t even stick around. They’ll only arrest you, too. Nobody except the Hive Five (and… Kid Flash, too, she presumed) knows about the new you. Remember that.
  * Don’t think about Kid Flash during this time. 
  * Don’t think about Kid Flash during this time.
  * Stop thinking about him right now. 
  * Just stop.
  * Please.
  * Stop thinking. Stop thinking in general. Get him out. He has no right to be in here.
  * You’re still thinking.
  * Stop.
  * Stop.
  * Stop.     



But how can you stop the fastest boy alive? In her own thoughts, his face, his smile, flashed around her mind so quickly she didn’t even have time to register his appearance.        

And then he stayed. And stayed.

Okay, this was getting pretty ridiculous. Jinx was  _feeling_ pretty ridiculous. Is this what heroes actually do? Lounge around until you hear a scream for help? Her discomfort kept growing, and she stayed in her little dark corner of the alleyway wanting to die. She had no idea what to do.     

_Oh._

She was stupid. Heroes walked around the city in their secret identities. They didn’t wait for trouble- they got alerted when trouble  _happened._ Which could take forever.      

Jinx slipped her way to the bank, and stayed there for about an hour, her hope dying. She bought some snacks. She sighed at the sky.     

Where was trouble when you needed it?     

A failed day. She trudged back to the hotel. 

****    

It occurred to her after another wasted week of waiting around, roaming the city until 12 o'clock, that she knew the answer.     

No criminal was going to outright rob a bank. They weren’t going to be loud about it. Not if they wanted the Teen Titans on their butts. And even if they did outright robbed a bank, loudly and proudly- the Teen Titans would get there before she did.     

No, all the crimes nowadays were petty, small, and rugged.They preyed on helpless grandmothers. They preyed through quick snatches of the purse. They preyed on little, helpless girls wandering around at 3 in the morning near the Wellington Alley-ways.     

For once in Jinx’s life, trouble wasn’t going to find her.    

She was going to have to find trouble. 

****    

 The taste of the night was always heavy with cool mist around this time in the morning.  It was stupid that Jinx had waited this long before coming up with an answer. She’d known- as a villain- how villains thought. And she knew where they resided. How come she hadn’t thought of coming here before?      

 _It sort of feels wrong_ , something told her.  _It seems like this isn’t right_.      

The thought felt bitter in the back in her throat. She swallowed it down.      

_If they’re villains, they deserve to be caught, right?_

She didn’t answer herself.     

She could feel eyes on her.     

Her head flipped up, and she saw movement. Jinx felt herself glow pink instinctively, and she forced it to die down. Wouldn’t want trouble to get scared away before her experiment was over, right?    

So Jinx waited. And waited. 

And she’d been thinking for a while- a good ten minutes, at least- that she scared them off before the young group of fresh villains and villainesses came staggering out.

If you’d even call them villains and villainesses. Most of them seemed as though they hadn’t even  _attempted_ to rob anything larger than a local grocery store.     

Which might be smart, considering how the Teen Titans have taken over the city. They’d most definitely be caught and thrown in jail.    

But, you know, jail can be broken out of.     

Ooh. They’d seen her. And they were so obviously thinking what Jinx expected them to think. And they were coming over.    

She took this opportunity to take out her purse and start rummaging through it. She made sure to flash the (knock-off) LACHELLE label. (Supposedly these bags cost about $2,000 apiece. Supposedly. Jinx herself had never bought one. And she returned all the ones she’d stolen.)    

It seemed to do the trick.    

"What’s your name?” the innocent voice almost threw her off, but she could hear the undertone shadowed by the surface. Whoever this girl was- with her chunky clothes, ripped hoodie, and straining biceps- what she  _wasn’t_  was innocent.      

“Girlie,” the girl added for good measure, seeming to only realize Jinx’s gender at that moment. The boy that stood on her right could not seem to keep still, or quiet, excitedly shifting his feet and clicking his tongue. His hair was dark and slick, and his eyes seemed ravenous. Was he hungry?     

Jinx didn’t get a chance to check out the other boy- the one on the left. The girl had stepped forward again. Her hair was black and choppy, like her clothes. It hung around her cheekbones, and her nose was turned-up.

“Whatch'ya doing at three in the night?” she studied Jinx in her hood pulled over her face, and the purse Jinx had set “nervously” on the ground. “Around  _here_?”     

“Waiting,” Jinx said in a shrill voice. She couldn’t pull of stuttering. If her voice sounded oddly high pitched, maybe they’d think she was scared.      

“For  _what_?” the girl looked at her with total surprise.     

Jinx answered truthfully. “I'm… I’m not sure anymore. And if I was, I wouldn’t tell you. Go away.”     

For a second, it looked like the girl was actually going to. And because of that, Jinx felt a pang. Of something bad. Like she was tricking people who didn’t deserve it.     

If the girl wanted to go, Jinx would let them.

Two things happened, though, that changed things back on track.     

One, the boy on the right- with the greasy hair- moaned, and his stomach roared with a rumble Jinx remembered only too well. He shifted even more spastically. The girl, who’d been ready to turn back, saw this, and stopped.     

Two- Jinx had decided to give her opponent a fair warning, a plea for her not to go through with it. “If you know what’s good for you- don’t.”     

The girl turned back around, her eyebrows raised. “If I know what's  _good_ for me?”     

Jinx slowly nodded, once, stiffly. She knew what was going to happen before it even happened.     

She should’ve not given that warning.      

The girl sighed and stepped even closer to Jinx. “Sorry, girlie. But we won’t hurt you. We just need that pretty bag-”    

 "Don’t touch it. I’ll give you enough to buy food. Just leave me alone.“     

"We don’t need enough. We need as much as we can get. Which is everything. Sorry, girlie. Shouldn’t be wandering these streets alone. And you shouldn’t try to pull that tough act. Everyone else around here wouldn’t be anywhere near forgiving as we are.”    

 A hand reached for the LACHELLE bag, and Jinx caught it, anticipation bubbling in her throat as much as she wished it wouldn’t.    

 "Trust me.  _Don’t_."

She let just a little pink glint in her eyes.     

"I don’t think I like your tone, girlie. And I don’t think you’re nearly as stupid as you made yourself out to be.” The other girl’s eyes flashed, too. “You know exactly what you’re getting into. One last chance- step down now?”     

“One last chance for you: same offer.”     

A beat, and Jinx felt some resistance on her grip. One more second, and it grew stronger.     

 A blast threw the girl back into her sidekicks. Jinx stood, horrified. She hadn’t meant to make that strong a defense against that tiny of a move. The fight wasn’t supposed to be that short.     

“ _You knew exactly what you’re getting into_.” The girl said again, as Jinx actually tried to apologize, her insides falling. What a failure Jinx was. What a failure this night was- And then the other girl struck, and Jinx was knocked off her feet, as well as her train of thoughts.     

The other girl was a snake.     

An actual snake.     

Jinx heard hoots as she sprang up from the floor, and was knocked off once again. Something slithered up her leg, and her eyes went pink.     

The snake sprang to the left, wriggling into a gasping, buff teenage girl  before wriggling back into animal form.     

Jinx aimed another hex that way, and she ducked. Jinx’s eyebrows raised. Her hexes became more directed. The serpent ducked those, as well. Her eyes narrowed, doubt creeping into her brain, until she finally knicked the tail. Her shoulders relaxed the tiniest inch, hexing the ground in front of the reptile, sending it ricocheting to the left. Jinx crashed into the floor. Someone was pummeling her, her hair being pulled, a fist connected with her face. This inconvenience was off her within seconds, careening from her pink smash. She cast aside a glance, and her throat clogged up. Where was the thief? This pause was when she got bit. Hard. On the foot.     

She screamed, a little, and kicked. She hexed the thing, before turning smack-dab into the  _other_ sidekick. The one that didn’t jitter around like crazy.     

He had blonde hair that highlighted silver even in the dead of this night, His eyes were light. His face was square, not pointed, and his body was stony. Other than dressing in black, he looked nothing like Kyd Wykkyd did. But he didn’t talk, barely showed emotion, and moved gracefully just like Jinx’s old teammate- it was enough for Jinx to hesitate.     

That was all he needed. 

He punched her square in the jaw. That was going to be seriously bruise, or be sprained, definitely. Her legs kicked up defensively, and she caught him in the chest and in the cheek, before springing off and landing a hex right in the same place of his chest that she kicked him. He flew backwards, and she gulped, closing her eyes for just a second before running towards him with a brick and knocking him out. Most painless way to go- utter blackness. She had a feeling this guy wouldn'tve backed down from a fight.     

A huge hiss of outrage came from behind her, and Jinx reached out to grab the snake mid-air. It wriggled before shifting back to human form, and Jinx hexed the girl back, prepping the brick.     

“We weren’t going to  _hurt_  you,” the girl spat, blood on her lip.     

“Thieves,” Jinx said, the words feeling empty in her mouth even as she said it. “Someone needed to stop you."      

"We  _wouldn’t have_ stolen if you hadn’t  _set us up_  for it.”     

“But you did anyways.”     

“We need to get by! We need to  _live_! Isn’t survival more important than your precious LACHELLE bag?”     

Jinx closed her eyes. Somehow, replying “It’s only a knock-off!” didn’t seem very relevant.     

“You wanted this. Technically, we walked into your trap. But intentionally, you were the one who set it. Who the fuck does that?”     

Jinx opened her eyes to a hiss, seeing a desperate jab of green at her wrist. Jinx swung the brick down.     

The snake wriggled a little before stopping still, morphing slowly back into the girl’s original form. Jinx’s heart clenched even more at the sight. She saw a slipping badge of yellow at the edge of her neck. HIVE. This girl’d went to HIVE academy. Probably a drop-out. Maybe that’s why she hung around here, in the alleyways.      

Jinx groaned, putting her arms in her head. She stayed like that for a while. That did it. She was definitely not cut out for hero work. Not if she had to deal with people like this. Not if she felt  _bad_ while doing it. Not if she felt bad taking down thieves or “villains” like this.     

But what if these were the wrong types of villains? What if this is the reason why the Titans didn’t really bother with these alleys? Because these “thieves” weren’t really all that bad at all? This whole task seemed hopeless. Everything in front of her seemed hopeless. How was she supposed to figure out- in two months, when her stolen money ran out- whether she was hero material? How was this quest to find herself ever going to end if there were layers and layers and layers to these “hero” experiments?    

 She hadn’t even thought about it, but the jittery sidekick- the one that she thrown to the side. Where was he?     

She stood up in a flash. One body. Second body. Where was the third body?    

Someone- someone with  _red hair_ \- stepped out of the shadows, reluctantly, putting this last body- the greasy haired sidekick- against the wall. He looked a little sheepish, for once. “Hey.”     

Jinx took a moment to let this sink in. 

_No._

She groaned again, and ran both hands through her hair, sinking to the ground. She felt the breeze flush past her face as he rushed to her side.    

“Real happy to see me, huh?”    

Jinx groaned in response. Kid Flash had the nerve to laugh.

She did not want him to see her trying and failing. She did not want him to show up when she was weakest. She did not want him to  _see her like this_ \- so disgustingly unsure and guilty with herself.          

“I’ll take that as a  _no_.”     

She stood up and ignored him, walking over to the LACHELLE bag that got turned over in the fight. She examined it, the side of it. It was singed by one of her hexes. She rummaged through, her hands closing on the stray ten dollar bills and quarters floating around, all the while Kid going, “Hey. Hey, Jinx, I’m sorry. I know you rejected my offer to stay with me, but I didn’t realize you meant to take a hike from your whole  _life_.”     

“It’s not  _that_ , Kid. Don’t be stupid.”     

She shoved the bills and the coins- around $38. She hadn’t exactly expected to bring a ton of money with her to a fight- in the girl’s pockets. Finding a scrap receipt, she wrote out “Knock-off and damaged. But can be used 2 carry stuff if u want”. She also fished through her bag for something more, anything more, to help these guys, but she didn’t really have anything left. She took her wallet, fake IDs, pens, trash, cell phone, and paper, leaving a gift card with $7 left on it to McDonald’s and one last note:     

“If you need help. [1-425-888-9291](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=denied%3Adenied%3Atel%3A1-425-888-9291&t=OTQ3NzdlZmZhNGY2NWNmYjUyOGU5MzljOWZhYTUwNzZlMmQzMmRkMCxrS21OdHRZdA%3D%3D&b=t%3AH4M9AszMlUwuT27J6-tcCA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwriteplex.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F108055424243%2Fsuper-long-teen-titans-jinx-evolution)”     

Surprisingly, Flash observed this all in silence. Until Jinx started walking away.    

“Not so villainous after all?”    

"Have you been following me? Is that what I saw, earlier tonight, before that group showed up? Was it  _you_?“   

"I agree and deny nothing. Not until you talk to me. Want to explain what all that was?”    

 She was so frustrated that she actually responded back, snapping, “A test. For myself. One that I failed. One that  _you're_ not involved in.”     

“If it involves you, it involves me.”     

“That’s where you’re wrong.”     

“Is it wrong to care about a passing acquaintance and her feelings?”     

“Passing acquaintance?”     

“You want us to be more?”     

Jinx took a sharp turn into an alley, hoping to lose him. She couldn’t run, obviously. Maybe she could hide.      

For a second, in the darkness, she thought she did. She hopped up onto a trash can and quietly stealthed into the next alley over, making a bunch of dark, silent turns before winding up in the street. She frowned, looking at the sign. She didn’t really know how to get back to the hotel from here, off the top of her head.      

A voice was next to her ear. “Nice try. I noticed you didn’t answer my question.”     

“I forgot what the question was. I’m sorry. Maybe it wasn’t important enough.”     

“I asked if you wanted-”     

“I gotta get back to my hotel. Don’t you have better things to do at three in the morning than following poor, hapless girls ar-”     

Her face was hit with air before she even knew what was happening. Jinx groaned, putting her face into the solid chest behind her. She hated to do this, but her arms really were much more comfortable around his neck.     

“You? Poor?  _Hapless_?” It didn’t seem physically possibly to hear him at the speed of sound. But maybe that was because he’d bent down to whisper the words in her ear before they were lost in the wind. “Don’t make me laugh.”

It was actually one of the best things she’d heard all day. She got red from the compliment, and he grinned.      

“Now,” he began, slowing down to the pace of a car. “I feel like you owe me an explanation.”     

Jinx stayed silent. She wasn’t going to answer his idiotic question on whether she “wanted more” or not. Kid jostled her a little in his arms, gently.

“You said something about a test?”     

For a second, Jinx’s mind went blank. Stupidly, she’d assumed that Kid was still trying to get something out of her about their relationship.      

Then, she realized what he really was trying to talk about, and Jinx found it too tiring to argue.

It humiliated her to say it. But it made her feel better about herself. Like by admitting it out loud, it lost power over her. “I was testing myself to see if I could really do heroic things. Looks like you’ve been hanging out around me too much, Kid. Your luck doesn’t look so good after all. Your little plan to convert me to a hero? Doesn’t seem likely to happen.”     

“And what does that mean?” He was jogging now- about the pace of a cruising car.

“Oh, I’m still going to  _try_. But it’s pretty obvious from tonight- I was born to be a villain. This thing isn’t going to work out.”    

 He stopped. The impact was pretty hard- Jinx’s neck cracked from whiplash, and she gritted her teeth. “Is  _that_  what you’ve been up to this past week? You’ve been waiting for  _robberies_? _Break-ins_?  _Villains_?”     

The way he said it made her cheeks burn, like it was the stupidest idea ever to exist. And maybe it was. But that didn’t give him the right to  _judge_ her for it. 

“Don’t make me sound  _dumb_.”     

“Then don't  _act_ dumb! God, Jinx! You could’ve just asked me to tag along the next time I hear somebody call for help-”     

“I need to do this by  _myself_. How the hell else am I supposed to figure out if I’m cut out for this?”     

“I could  _tell_ you, maybe?”     

“You’d lie.”     

“Ouch.”     

“Your opinion is biased. You  _want_ me to join the heroes. You’d tell me  _anything_ that’d convince me into joining your precious Titans. And Kid- if you don’t start butting into my life every second you get a chance to-"      

"Maybe I wouldn’t need to, if you weren’t wandering suspiciously around my city by yourself at midnight every night.  _If you used_ that brain of yours, instead of-”     

Maybe that brain of Jinx’s was a bit slower than she thought it was, because it took her a second longer than it should have to realize exactly what Kid said.      “Kid!"      

He seemed to realize he slipped up, too. He stopped talking for a second before sneaking a glance at Jinx.     

With every other word, she smacked him in the chest. ” _That_ is  _what_  I  _mean_!“

At the last syllable, she hexed him back, rolling back onto her feet, furious.

"It  _was_ you watching me tonight. Like you’ve been watching me every night. You can't  _do_  that! Don’t you have anything else to do? A city to protect?" 

He took a couple seconds to pick himself up and shake his head off, which must’ve felt like an eternity to him. "I  _was._  By keeping tabs on  _you_ \- making sure you didn’t go back to your villainous ways. How else was I supposed to know what you were going to do?”    

“Not…  _follow_ me! I… You are…” her words failed her. She chose instead to scream. “Argghhwher!”    

"Yes,“ Kid agreed. "Sure. What you said. I get it. I understand.”    

Everything left her. She was drained. She didn’t feel like trying anymore. She didn’t feel like talking, she didn’t feel like playing at hero… She didn’t really even feel like thinking about waking up tomorrow. She glanced up at the sign, frowning. This was only a block from the hotel. She glanced at the footprints- the light, bare touches that quietly whispered that somebody had ran here- and the way they overlapped each other. Kid could’ve gotten her to her hotel in a second. They’d been running and re-running around it in a loop. She didn’t have the strength to be annoyed anymore. Instead, she made sure everything was still in her sweater (wallet, yeah. phone, yeah), letting Kid’s talking fade into background noise.     

And she walked on to her hotel.      

“Jinxie.  _Jinxie_. Did I say something?”     

She still had the energy to roll her eyes as she walked. He pressed on.    

“Look. I’m sorry for following you. I really am. I was kind of worried about you, you know?”     

She gritted her teeth and kept moving forward. He tried again. “Really worried, actually. Are you happy now that I admitted it?”     

Her hotel. It was coming up. She picked up the pace. He followed. “Now, don’t do that. You know you can’t win at that game.”     

She was walking up the hotel steps now, rummaging through her hoodie to get her key. Kid sighed.     

 "Stop. Okay? I won’t make fun, or act stupid when you talk… Can you just explain why you felt the need to test yourself? And why you thought you failed?“     

This ignoring thing was working. She thought she had him beat, actually, until he swiped her key.     

"See, no. This silence thing is driving me insane. And it’s going to stop. And you’re going to start talking.”     

“What are you, my  _dad_?” Jinx snapped, and he managed a smile.     

“There we go. Now start over. And talk to me.”    

He sat down on the steps, twirling the key card between his fingers, humming to himself. Half of her wanted to go to the lobby and sleep on the couch, but that’d leave her unprotected to the public. Worse- Kid might pick her up and take her to his house, or something. Or keep watching her. Or think… Think she was stupid. And she really did care if he thought she was stupid, as much as she hated to admit it.    

There were a lot of things she could’ve said. “I want to try to be a hero, and if I’m going to try to be a hero, I need to not worry about money, and to not worry about money, I need a job, and to get a job, I need one of those thingies that Cyborg has, and to get one of those thingies Cyborg has, I have to get the Titans to trust me, and to get the Titans to trust me, I have to be a hero, and to be a hero, I have to try to be a hero.”     

“I just need to  _want_ it,” is what she said instead. “I need to want to be good. And I need to like it.”     

Kid was silent for a while. She watched his face, and saw it flicker. It was uncertain. And that made her uncertain. Uncertain on Kid Flash? She didn’t know how to react to that.     

“Please give me back my key.”     

“What did you mean about you failing?’     

His words seemed clipped, cautious, like he was being careful that he wasn’t saying the wrong thing.    

"I had this test for myself. And I failed it. I didn’t act heroically.”     

“Was that the test? How heroic you acted?”     

“Something like that.”     

He made a noise in his throat, like he wanted to say something but couldn’t, or he was trying to push back his reaction. 

“Well. What exactly is your definition of heroic?”

 It was actually a bit of a hard question. “Get the bad guys in jail. Do it with minimal damage. Try not to hurt anyone else.”     

“I think that’s a pretty shitty definition of heroic. You know what was heroic? Giving those kids  _money_ was heroic.”     

“No. No, it wasn’t.” She struggled to say something, and he waited for her. She realized something that kind of sickened her and softened her at the same time “I guess it was…  _good_.”     

“You don’t need to be anything more.”    

 "I set them up.“     

"And you felt bad about that?”     

“Yes.”     

“That sounds pretty good to me.”    

 "I feel stupid. Really stupid. Like I should be explaining shit to you, not the other way around.“    

 ” _Life_ hasn’t been pretty good to you. It’s not your fault it didn’t educate you.“

"I don’t like not knowing things. Especially if it makes you think that you’re smarter than me.”     

“I  _am_ smarter than you.”     

“See? It’s dangerous having these conversations. It gives you crazy, mistaken thoughts like that.”     

He laughed, and it felt really, really good to have someone laugh like that. Sometimes she made the HIVE Five laugh, but it was different.     

“You can help me out,” Kid suggested, again. “If you want to try heroics. You don’t have to hang around the alleys, tricking people into stealing from you.”  

   “I can’t,” Jinx said automatically. Her imagination flashed into the thought of it- fighting side by side with Kid. The idea gave her weird, confusing waves of emotion.    

 "Of course you  _can_. You  _can_ do anything.“     

"I can’t.”     

“Are you physically incapable of it? You look pretty active to me.”     

“I don’t want any help from anyone.”     

“You wouldn’t be getting help.  _You'd_ be helping  _me._ ”     

“Don’t try to fool yourself.”     

“I don’t understand why you make things so much harder for yourself-”     

“I need to do this on my  _own_.  _How many times have I told you this?_ ”     

“A lot. But I’m hoping you change your mind.”     

The conversation became uncomfortable. She leaned away from him, for whatever reason. Her eyebrows were furrowed together. “I’m cold. And tired. Give me the key to my room.”     

He grinned at her for a second, and she thought, “ _Oh_.”     

He was gone in a blur and back in a flash.    

 A jacket- a bright red one, that was surprisingly warm, was slowly and dramatically draped over her shoulders. She sniffed. It smelled exactly like him- boyish and lemony. With a hint of that deodorant she never really liked, but for some reason, it seemed okay now.     

Jinx raised her eyebrows as she looked at the stitching. “West? Is that the name of your high school?”    

 For a second, he froze. Maybe he hadn’t expected to give away that much personal information. Jinx could use this data against him- she could technically still work for the Brotherhood of Evil if she wanted to. But he tried to relaxed, still a little tense. “Yeah. Yeah, it is."     

 And maybe he was anxious to change the subject, because he smiled widely and sat down, watching her face. She stared back, unsure of herself, unsure of him and what he was doing, until she realized that his arms were still hugging hers, from when he was draping his jacket over her.     

Jinx’s eyes immediately flashed, and his hands raised away. "Okay, okay. But I’m going to change your mind.”     

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”    

 "About needing nobody. It’s not going to work.“     

"I need to be dependent of myself-”     

“And I can  _help_ you. Let me help you… help yourself.”

 _“I can’t do this for you!_ ”     

“You won’t be doing this  _for_ me! Did you leave the money, for those kids back there, for me? No. You did it for them.”     

“You make it sound so simple,” her frustration was seeping into her voice. “It’s not this simple.”    

 "Well, it’s not that  _complicated,_  either. Being a Titan is all about teamwork. You never really have to do anything alone. You don’t need to figure all this out by yourself. You don’t need to make it all so hard.“     

Jinx let out a frustrated sound and dropped her head in her hands. There was that side, yeah. But… it hurt. It was scary to accept help. It was scary to try. It was scary to let yourself into the hands of the Titans. And it was scary to be around Kid Flash.     

He kept quiet. Maybe he was letting his words sink in.     

She took a deep breath. His jacket was putting some heat in her shoulders, even if her legs were freezing. She pulled it closer, and rubbed her eyes. It was too late for her to think things through. There was a sea of sleep waiting to pull her under.     

"Maybe I don’t like the idea that  _you_  changed me,” Jinx was saying. She didn’t know where the words were coming from. Her thoughts were getting murky. “ _I_ want to change me.”     

He still didn’t say anything. He didn’t even move.      

“It’s all so stupid."      

"It’s not.”    

 "I’m really tired, Kid.“     

"Okay.” He was weird now. He was being really weird. Something had changed in the air, and he changed with it.     

“Can I have my-”     

Her hand suddenly was being touched. Warmth fell over her fingers before the hand pulled away.     

Her hand was closed over a key card. She didn’t even raise her head when she said, “Thank you.”    

"I understand. I do.“    

She didn’t really have anything to say to that.     

Kid went on. There was no annoying teasing or joking or playfulness in his voice. She was almost scared. "So I won’t push it. But if you need help,  _tell me._  Or  _someone_. You don’t need-”     

“To do this alone. I got it."      

"Right.”     

Jinx finally raised her head and stood, the jacket slipping off her back. She held onto it a second longer than she needed to before giving it back.    

 The choice was right there, swimming in her exhaustion. She could ask for help for something. She could ask for help for something right now, actually. Should she? It began to burn a hole in her thoughts.     

“Well, okay, I’ll just let you sl-”    

"I do need something.“     

She let out a little breath as she admitted it. It took some weight off her chest and replaced it with something funny.     

Kid didn’t even blink. "What is it?”     

“You’ll need to ask Cyborg for it.”     

“Okay.”    

 "It’s not for anything villainous.“     

"Good to hear.”     

“I don’t really know the name of it-”     

“Describe it.”     

So she did. She talked about how the device changed appearances. She talked about how Cyborg tricked HIVE into thinking he was Stone with it. Her cheeks tinged red with embarrassment, thinking back to Stone, and how badly she liked him. How badly she was tricked by him.    

 Kid could be like that. Kid could be tricking her right now. Just to keep her out of the Titan’s way in the war- and the second the war’s over, he could run away from her and never come back.     

He was watching her face. His eyebrows knit together when she mentioned Cyborg.     

“When do you need it?”     

“Any time.”    

"I’ll have it in three days.“    

"Wow. That’s fast.”    

"You’re surprised?“     

She rolled her eyes and blinked heavily. "Thank you.”     

“You don’t need to thank me.”     

“I do.”     

And because she knew she’d stay up talking to him until she fell asleep right there, she started up the staircase, almost tripping on one of the steps. She saw a blur of yellow and red before she fell, but she caught herself, and when she looked back, he was right there, still waiting. He smiled broadly and waved. She turned and kept walking.     

He waited until she was out of sight before running home. He fell asleep the second he hit the bed.     

They both had dreamless sleep and woke up with the last night in their head. 

****    

 In two days, he got her Cyborg’s device. In four days, Jinx found the business with the highest crime rate in the city- the museum of arts.     

In a week, she landed a job. As a cashier at the gift store. Within another week, she stopped her first small crime.     

A little guy, shoplifting a dinosaur. She put her hand on him before he even walked out the door.      

“Trust me,” she’d said, taking the dinosaur from him. She made her eyes very serious. “It’s going to get a lot worse if you keep this up. If you get away with it now, you’ll try again in the future. And you’ll keep trying it. And it’s not worth it. It’s not worth losing yourself.”     

He look terrified, nodding, before getting escorted out of the store by security, ashamed of being caught. Maybe he didn’t understand now. But hopefully he would later.      

Jinx felt bad for the little guy. And a little proud of her speech.

She still couldn’t tell if this was signs of her goodness, or not.     

Kid hadn’t appeared during this whole time. 

****     

When Jinx got the call, she only hesitated for a second.    

And then she adamantly apologized to her boss, promised to work double for the next week, and asked the only person she knew for a ride.    

But first, she changed out of her “Jenny Baxter” hologram. Can’t let Kid Flash know her secret identity, now, can she? 

****     

“I don’t know if you should really… come in.”

“Are you in some sort of trouble? Did you get into the villain stuff again? You still haven’t told me why I just had to drive you down to the  _jailhouse._ ”    

He was just as serious as he was at the end of the night where they last spoke. Jinx hadn’t really expected that. She kind of missed him- the flirty, joking him. He was like that on TV. He flirted with a TV reporter the last time she saw him on the news, and she almost blasted her lamp in jealousy.     

She still kind of hated him now for it. It made her doubt every single thing he’d ever said. Had he  _ever_  liked her?     

And then today. He barely cracked a smile. Was he done with her? Over it?

Yeah, she really hated him right now.     

“You didn't  _have_ to do anything if you didn’t want to.”     

“You know I wanted to.”     

“Really seems like it. Oh- you can go right now, actually.”    

“ _What_?"      

"Yeah, the hotel’s close enough to here that I can walk. Don’t worry. I’m not getting into any of that- what did you call it?  _Villain stuff_? Yeah, so don’t keep yourself up at night. Thanks again. Sorry about the ride.”     

“Jinx, you don’t have to be sorry. You just have to  _tell me_ -”     

“See you around, Kid.”

Maybe that was a little rude, to cut him off like that. After he gave her a ride, and everything. But she was a little confused. And peeved.     

She had a feeling she shouldn’t ask for any favors anytime soon.     

She walked into the jailhouse. 

*****

They walked in silence.      

It’d been fairly quick. She got in, posted the bail, got out. Technically, she was underage, but with her fancy new Cyborg projector, “Mrs. McLean” got in, paid the dues, and got out.     

Then she changed out of her “Mrs. McLean” form and walked Kayla home. 

She looked different from when Jinx had tricked her into fighting. She looked scruffier. Less like she cared.      

She was shuffling her feet, looking down, keeping her choppy black hair in her eyes. It was clear Kayla didn’t want to talk.     

This gave Jinx a chance to really study Kayla in the daylight. She was a good deal taller than Jinx, with broad shoulders splattered with freckles. She had on a black tank top and cargo pants. Her eyes were heavily lined with white eyeliner, making the brown in her irises really “pop”. She slumped. Her hands were jammed in her pockets.      

“So you got busted for what, exactly?” Jinx said, hating the silence, hating being the one to have to step up and try, hating feeling so lost.      

Kayla’s fingers twitched. She was still wearing that black jacket she had on the night Jinx met her- the one with the HIVE badge on it.      

She took a deep breath. Maybe Kayla realized that since Jinx posted the bail, she had to act grateful.     

“Pickpocketing.”     

“Only you?”     

Kayla took another deep breath. “Benn- My friend pick pocketed. I was just the one with the wallets.”    

They walked on for another few steps before-

“You mean your friend, the silent one? Or your friend, the jittery one?”     

Kayla gave her a sharp sideways look. Jinx raised her eyebrows back, eyes hard. That seemed to put Kayla out of her grateful act.      

“I think that’s enough questions.”    

"Oh, yeah. Sure. So I was thinking that we’d all stay in tonight-“     

"What are you  _talking_  about?” Kayla snapped.      

“Your  _friends_. They’re coming, too.”    

 "To  _where?_ “     

"To  _my place._  Where we can all figure some things out. Together.”    

 Kayla made a choking sound. “No. None of us are going to  _your place_.”  

Jinx raised her eyebrows again, and Kayla backed up. “Thanks for getting me out of there, and we’re really grateful, and all, and thanks for offering, but you don’t need to. We’ve got it from here.”     

“Free meals and shelter seem pretty good to me.”     

“We kind of already get that.” Stealing meals and hijacking homes was something Jinx knew only all too well.     

“Exactly. Which is why it’s not an offer for you all to come…” Jinx said, her tone hardening. “But a request.”     

“Or what?”     

“Jail, maybe?”     

Kayla spun around so fast that Jinx hexed her hands. After a curse and a death glare, she spat, “Okay,  _girlie._  Let’s get something straight. You’re not my  _caretaker_. Or my  _babysitter._  Or my friends’ babysitter. What you  _are_ is someone who is digging too deep into something that isn’t their business, all right? So thanks, but back off. You can play mother-daughter with someone else.”     

“HIVE,” Jinx noticed. She flicked the yellow badge. “I had some great times at that place.”     

Kayla’s eyebrows shot up, and they stopped walking for just a moment. Her eyes narrowed. “HIVE.”     

“Yeah. Top graduate.” A small seed of pride pricked at her heart. She may have been bad, once upon a time, but at least she’d- once upon a time, of course- been the  _baddest_ of them all.    

"Holy- I  _remember_ you. You were the one in the year below me. What  _happened_?“     

"How did you not recognize me before?” Jinx tried not to sound so incredulous. “I  _ruled_  that place by my second year.”     

She realized how egotistical that must’ve seemed and began to walk faster.    

“I dropped out.”    

 Jinx’s jaw tightened. “You wanted to get out on the field before graduation?”     

“I couldn’t use a knife.”     

Jinx remembered those exams exactly. Second year, first semester finals. Knife duels. Sometimes knives were hard to deal with, but Jinx never heard of anyone dropping out because of failing those duels. Not unless you got decapitated.     

“Did you… get injured? Or-”

“I  _wouldn't_ use a knife.”

“You  _refused_  to take the exam?”     

Kayla made a gurgled noise in her throat and gritted her teeth. She kept walking for a while before saying, in a surprisingly soft voice- “I took the exam. I did the duel. I just threw away the knife. And I didn’t use fangs. That slowed me down. They told me to use the knife or leave the school.”    

They were gaining ground to the hotel. Jinx tried to slow down, trying to prolong the story. “Do you know  _how_ -”     

“ _I know how to use a knife_. Are you stupid?"     

 Kayla didn’t seem like she was really encouraging any other questions. Her mouth formed a tight line. Jinx hummed as they neared "her place”.     

“I won the fucking duel, though.” Kayla added. Her face stayed stony, stubborn. Jinx tried not to laugh, as she kept her body covered by a blue cape, as to not draw attention to herself.     

She stopped at the hotel. Kayla, keeping up with Jinx’s pace, stopped with her.

"We’re here,” Jinx announced.      

Kayla crossed her arms. “And what is here?”

“My place.”

“Then I’ll be going.”     

And she was just about to, until-      

“Kayla!” the jittery boy with the greasy hair shouted as he waved his hands from the lobby. Even the other sidekick- the one with platinum blonde hair and light eyes that never talked- grinned. Kayla froze. “Guess what? We’re ordering room service tonight!" 

******

"Only for a night,” Kayla had said. So she and the two boys left, but came back the next night, and they’d been here for two weeks now.      

Jinx didn’t mind. It kept them out of trouble. And it got her talking to them about staying out of trouble.     

Benny. Kayla. Carl. Well- Carl didn’t talk. But he did listen.

“HIVE,” Kayla scoffed. “Hate that place. How did you finally break free?”

Jinx was quiet for a while. “I graduated.”     

“Oh, right. I remember. You were Miss Top of the Class, huh?”     

“It felt nice to be good at something,” Jinx echoed her past thoughts. “Bad luck was all I had.”     

“So what happened? What got you reduced to stealing with amateurs like us?”

“I don’t steal. Not anymore. At least, I don’t think I do.”    

"Again- what the hell happened?“     

"Someone barged in, gave me a rose, and trashed my room.”

“ _Okayyy_. Thanks for that great answer.”     

“He changed me.”     

Kayla gave a grunt, rolling her eyes as she was just about to complain about another vague answer, until something dawned across her face. “A  _boy_. Wow. You don’t seem like the type to drop everything for a  _boy_.”     

Surprising frustration smashed Jinx across the face. “I didn’t want to be changed.”     

“Okay? Then don’t. You don’t have to  _stay_  changed. It’s not that hard.”     

With that Kayla opened a Family Party pack of chips and noisily started downing the whole bag. She always ate everything in sight.

“But I think I want to be changed now.”     

“Well,  _make up your damn mind_ , okay? I don’t fucking know what else to tell you. Be changed if you want. Don’t be changed if you don’t. And stop whining, my god. You seem to have it pretty good right now.” Kayla spread her arms out to the cramped hotel room, with a mess scattered all across the floor, where there was only one twin sized bed and three chairs for people to sleep in. There was one bathroom for all of them to share. The way Kayla looked around, though, you’d think that they were in a luxury penthouse.     

Jinx thought back to the life with the HIVE FIVE. Would she rather be with them, or here? For a scary moment, she didn’t know the answer. She’d loved the HIVE FIVE. They were family.     

But then she recognized the taste of independence on her tongue, and the feeling of caring, and the feeling of not being so bored and unpassionate about what she was living for.     

“Yeah. I guess I do.”

*****     

“I was thrown out on the streets. This guy named Sandy took me in for six of the best years of my life. Then he had to go die, and I’m stuck with these losers,” Benny said each line as though it was the most exciting story he got to tell ever, eyes wide, bony fingers fluttering through the air.      

“Why do you steal?”     

He looked at her like she was stupid. “Everyone steals. Every person for themselves. Somehow, the person I steal from will steal from someone else, and that someone else will steal from someone else, and someone will steal from me, and it all works out in the end, because everyone’s stealing from everyone!”     

“I’m not sure that’s really true.”     

“Maybe not  _stealing_ , but everyone does  _bad things_. At least I’m man enough to admit it.”     

“Not everyone tries, though.”     

“What?”     

“Not everyone  _tries_  to do bad things. They just… happen.”     

Benny scowled. “What are you trying to say? That I should be  _good_ , like you? Are you trying to make me be  _good_ , is that what it is?”     

“I’m not that good.”     

Benny looked skeptical. “I don’t know. You gave us money that one time, and you’re letting us live here. But we’re street thugs-” Jinx tried not to laugh at that “-so I don’t know if that counts if you do good things for bad people. But I’m watching you. If you’re good, I’m going to find out.”     

“Let me know when you do, will you? I’m trying to figure that out myself." 

******     

"You remind me a lot of this guy I used to know,” Jinx told Carl. “Thanks for listening.”     

Carl nodded. He didn’t smile. At least not until Jinx started laughing.

Then he smiled a little. 

*****     

“You’re such a hypocrite!” Kayla yelled, once. “Trying to get me to figure out why I’m so fucked up when you’re fucked up, too! What are you doing today to make things right? Huh? When you get yourself all straightened out, come talk to me.”

 *****     

It wasn’t just a boy that changed her.     

He started it, yeah. But it took a snake-shifting girl, two boys, and herself to really get things right.     

And for that, she was eternally grateful. 

*******     

They’d made a deal. All of them.

They were going to get jobs. And they weren’t going to steal.     

In exchange, Jinx was going to be good. And really try to be good.     

And provide shelter, food, and water 

*******     

“Kid Flash!” she’d yelled, two hours after the deal was made. She wasn’t sure if he’d come, after the last time they’d met. They were both kind of… cold to each other. “Kid!”     

She kept at it, walking up and down the streets. “Kid Flash!” People looked at her like she was insane, which made her want to hex some stuff up, but she digressed.      

It’d been ten minutes. Maybe it sounded unappreciative, but he’d never been this late before.    

 She put her head on her forehead, trying to figure out the best way to go about this. She checked the surrounding areas. What would be the easiest to clean up? And what was she willing to pay for in order for Kid to get out here right now?     

The banana stand. If she send them flying everywhere, all she’d have to do is pick them back up, and they’d be fine. You couldn’t eat the banana peels, anyways. 

She pointed a finger at them, wincing.    

The cart started to shake.     

“Hey,” Kid appeared. “Hey, hey, hey, whoa. Sweetheart. Doing all that for me?"      

Jinx folded her arms and scowled. "What took you so long?”     

“Maybe I was busy.” His smile faded. He stopped his grin and stood up straighter.     

“I see.” Jinx lost some of the gusto she had before. She tried to remember why she even brought him to her feet at the first place, tried to feel the determination she felt before-     

“So what’s all this about? What did you need me so badly for?”     

“I-” She tried again, but she didn’t know how to act around a serious Kid Flash. It felt like he was off. It felt wrong.     

“Jinx.”

“Didn’t you use to call me Jinxie?” the words came out of her mouth before she could stop them. Her mouth was set in a line, and her eyes were narrowed.     

He looked surprised.

"That’s what you called me down for?“     

"No. It’s not. But- okay, you know what? We should probably just forg-” she was about to tell him to forget it, until she remembered that he called her sweetheart at the beginning of this conversation. Something hitched inside her lungs, and she pushed away the doubt, the flirting with reporters she saw on TV, the cold attitude he’d been giving her.  “We should probably talk.”     

He looked even more surprised. And he didn’t say anything. His eyes were really blue. And his hair was winking a fiery red at her.      

“Okay.”    

They started walking. 

*****   

“If you’ll take me,” Jinx said, “I’d like to help.”    

 Kid was quiet.     

“Anytime you need extra help, or anything, fighting, you can call me somehow… I don’t know. It’s the least I can do since you drove me to the jailhouse, and you gave me the hologram projector from Cyborg, and I’m just returning the favor-”     

“You want to fight? You’re joining the heroes?”    

"I’m not-“ Jinx was about to snap, but she furrowed her eyebrows, stopping herself. Why did she keep denying what was actually happening. "Yeah. I guess I am.”  

"And you want to fight alongside me?“     

Jinx looked away. "If you'll… You know. If you need help. Then I’m ready.”

“Maybe I’ll have to make you beg for it.”     

“Maybe I’ll take up business with someone better.”     

“Maybe there isn’t anyone better.”     

Jinx was about to protest, until he added, “ _Jinxie_.”     

And she whipped around, beaming. She just realized that he’d been joking. Teasing. With  _her._  Like old times. 

“Are you- are we good, now? Are we-” She caught herself just a second too late. Confusion flashed over his face. 

“Are we good? What do you mean?”    

 She didn’t really want to say anything, until he poked her in the cheek. “Jinx. You can’t fight with me unless you tell me-”    

 "You got really cold. That’s all. No teasing, flirting, smiles, or stalking me everywhere. Not that I missed it,“ she added. "Or anything.”    

"You needed to figure things out for yourself, right? You didn’t want me to change you. You wanted to change yourself.“     

Jinx looked at him in surprise. "I can’t believe you remembered… I forgot I even said…”     

“ _Remembered_? That’s all I thought about.”     Jinx didn’t know what to say, other than tease him, stammering, “A-aw, you thought about me?”     

“Just every second.” When she turned around, he was grinning at her. “Like you were.”     

“What? Who said?”    

 "You. You wanted me to flirt, smile, tease, stalk…"     

“ _No_. I never said  _want_. I just said that I  _noticed_  you’d stopped.”     

“Hm. Maybe if my efforts aren’t needed, I could take my flirting, smiling, teasing, stalking somewhere else-”     

“ _Please_. Shut up.”     

His face became stony, and she stuck her tongue out at him, and he couldn’t help laughing, running off to grab her a rose. “Miss these?”     

She did.     

She seriously, really did.     

She- as gingerly as possible- took it…     

And dropped it to the floor, blinking hard as she wrapped her arms around Kid’s waist, on the steps of an apartment building, hidden by a blue cloak.     He held her tight.      

“You did change me, though,” she said, muffled voice vibrating through his chest. “And I can’t change the fact.”     

“But-”     

“But I stayed changed. And that was all me. So… there. A big ha-ha to my life. A cute boy can’t barge in and turn you upside down. That was me.”     

“Cute? You think I’m cute?”     

They were still hugging, and Jinx didn’t want to stop. She rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes. He still smelled like lemons. They started swaying, just barely, at the slowest rhythm possible.    

 "Maybe. That’s the only part you got from that lovely speech?“     

"What about smoking good looks? That’s a pretty good description, too.”     

“You didn't  _really_  think of me that much.” Jinx said it almost like a question. She tensed up, just a little. She was sure he noticed. And she was begging him to defend wisely. He didn’t disappoint.     

“Are you saying that I  _lie?”_

“I'm… I don’t know. I just guess I don’t really believe you.”     

“I don’t lie,” he traced a circle on her back. She said nothing, still skeptical, still remembering the flirting with the tv reporter.      

Until- “I did stalk you. Even more. I followed you into the jailhouse, the day you asked me to drive you. And I followed you guys home. So I know all about Kylie-”  

“Kayla.”     

“Yeah, her. And I wasn’t busy before this. I came over as soon as I could, and then I wanted to see if you actually needed me. I kind of wanted to torture you. And I still stroll by in the morning, or around the museum, to see how you’re doing. You ate a bagel yesterday.”     

“That’s a little weird, Kid.”     

“You love it.”     

She pushed him down, and he started to protest until she curled up next to him. He stilled, grinning widely.      

“I’ve finally figured out me,” Jinx ignored his accusation. “At least a little.”

“Yeah?”     

“So we can start with that question you asked me in the alleys.”    

"That question… There were a lot of those…"     

“On whether I want to be just your… I forgot what you said.  _A passing acquaintance._ ”     

Jinx grabbed his shirt and kissed the outer edge of his lips, before pulling back and glaring, “Do I need to spell out the answer?”     

Kid choked, a little, and she laughed, almost panicking until she realized how red he was getting, how nervous she made him, how much he was smiling.     She wrapped her hands in his hair. It was warm, from the sun.     

And then she laughed. A pure, clean laugh of happy.     

And she kissed him, madly, deeply, honestly, happily.      

And he didn’t really begin to kiss back. It was only when she broke off and away, into a run, clutching his jacket to her chest, and got a good thirty yards away that he came to his senses.     

“No, I don’t think you’re getting away that easily.” He wrapped his jacket around her, loving how it looked, and kissed, with as much as he could put into it. The waiting for a month and a half. The following, the worrying, the teasing, the flirting. It was playful, and it was serious, and Jinx was so, so glad that she’d stayed changed.     

She was laughing, and he was laughing, and he pulled her closer.      

“I’m glad you finally used that brain of yours,” he managed to slip in, between kisses.     

“Mm.” She gave him a wicked gleam before breaking off and running into a cab, pulling her arms into the jacket sleeves, breathing in his scent. As it pulled away, she blew him a kiss, and he shook his head, grinning, running a hand through his hair.     

She wasn’t going to become a saint in a day. There wasn’t a moment where she dove headfirst into heroics.     

But she knows she can get there. 


	2. Epilogue

 When she got to the hotel, he was already waiting.

“Come to collect your jacket? I’m afraid it’s mine now.”     

“Huh, no,  _thief_. I’ve come to collect this-”     

He pulled her in, and her hands went to the back of his neck. When Kayla, Benny, and Carl hooted from three stories up, she smiled against his lips. 


End file.
